Oh dear God no, not the bombs.. Was the first appearance of TMNT on home consoles really a good idea?
Let's go back to the late 80's. You've got a whole bunch of things kids loved: Mario, Zelda, DuckTales, Transformers, G.I. Joe, and of course, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Most cartoons from the 80's were seen in games sooner or later, it was just a fact, it was going to happen.
Now, before this game, there was a TMNT arcade game, but later was actually ported to the NES as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II - The Arcade Game. It still doesn't give an excuse for such unforgiving difficulty and headache-inducing gameplay. Of course, Konami (using the name Ultra, obviously for this release) made up for this later.
This Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles loosely follows what actually goes on in the Turtle world. It features, of course, all four of the Turtles and allows the player to switch between either one freely, each with their own weapon which can be used in different situations. For example, for enemies in hard-to-reach platforms, it'd be wise to use Donatello because of the fact he has the bo which reaches out farther than any of the other Turtles' weapons.
When I said "loosely" I mean the fact there isn't much to this game that follows anything about the cartoons or comics. Sure, there's the Turtles, Splinter, April, Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady (which Ultra/Konami somehow managed to foul up by switching their names with eachother, meaning Bebop was Rocksteady and Rocksteady was Bebop, and they messed up Bebop's name by spelling it, I believe, Bibop, in the manual), the Foot Soldiers and, of course, the Technodrome.
The problem with this, however, is that many of the necessary characters that were in every other Turtles game, was not in this one. Instead, they decided to throw in a bunch of random enemies which had absolutely nothing to do with TMNT. Sure, it's alright to be unique, but if one's to make a game focused on a cartoon series and comic books, it'd be a good idea to stick close to what goes on. Plus, there were dozens and dozens of villians in the TMNT world, wouldn't you think they could have actually used some of them?
Onto the whole plot. In a nutshell, this game switches from an overhead action game to a side-scrolling platformer, which is the more common of the two. There are, I believe, five areas. The whole story, put simply, is this: April is kidnapped by Shredder's goons, so Splinter sends the Turtles out to rescue her, they do so, but April informs them that bombs have been placed at a dam to attempt to blow the dam up and flood the city.
The Turtles set off to remove these bombs, and this is where the game really becomes a, pardon the French, major pain in the ass. It's just fact that nearly every review on this game doesn't go without harping on this level. It really is that bad. The swimming controls are bad, and just about everything in the underwater level is out to kill you. The main annoyance at this point would be the electrical reefs, which suck your life at a quick pace once contact is made, and it's almost impossible to get through some parts without touching them. This wasn't necessary in all honesty, because the game already offered a challenging enough experience, it didn't need this at all.
Finally, if you can actually get through this part, a cut-scene begins. The Turtles come back home to find out Splinter has been kidnapped. Shredder sends a transmission through their television saying he has Splinter and practically tells them to go get him, "If they dare." This day just gets worse and worse for our green friends.
This brings you to the third area, the main city, which is more like a maze considering you don't know where you're really going without some sort of guide because of the fact that some buildings and sewers are like tunnels that take you to a location you're unsure of. It does, however, allow you to drive around the famous Turtle Van. After this area, you just continue onward through an airforce base and make your way to the Technodrome to find Splinter and defeat Shredder.
Now that all that's been said and done, it really boils down to the fact that, while it is a lengthy game and is decent at that, it was completely unnecessary to add so many annoyances and make the game more difficult than it honestly should've been.
Good: Good music * Plenty to explore * Each weapon useful for different situations * Each Turtle has his own life meter * Convenient switching between Turtles in the pause menu
Bad: Punishing difficulty * Didn't focus enough on the franchise * Controls aren't very good and too "loose" * Turtles move too sluggish and are a little too big
Graphics: Setting aside the fact the Turtles' sprites are a little too big and could've been a little smaller, the graphics in this game are actually pretty good. It's what you'd expect out of a Konami title, although they're not as good as Contra or Castlevania, and certainly not as good as the other TMNT games to come on the NES. Still, they did the job.
Sound/Music: The audio also have that specific Konami feel, such as the famous "pause" sound when one pauses the game. As for the sound effects themself, they're pretty good, like how each weapon has its own individual sound when used, and the sound resembles that of which it should, heavier weapons have a louder sound, smaller weapons have a lighter sound. The one annoying part about the sounds, however, is the warning alarm that goes off when a Turtle is about to die. It wasn't really necessary to have such a loud, sharp, irritating noise when the rest of the game is a little quieter. As for the music, it has that simply awesome rock n' roll theme that Konami always featured in their games. The only complaint I really have about the music is that nowhere in the game is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme used. As much as I did like the intro music for it, I think it would've been better with the actual theme. Rest of the music though, I can't complain, I'll admit that I love it, some of the music stuck with me through all these years.
Difficulty: Oh dear God, do I really need to talk about this again? If you skimmed over the whole thing above discussing the game, I'll just bring you up to speed, this game was way harder than it really had to be. Don't believe me? Go try it. Prove me wrong.
Gameplay: I don't know what else to add to this since pretty much I've talked about it all. Again, it switches between an overhead action game to a side-scrolling platformer, the platformer style being the more commonly used. The overhead portion is simply used for moving between buildings, sewers and other locations, although there's still dangers to look out for and enemies to be fought in the overhead parts.
Controls: Simply said, they could've been better. They feel too loose yet sluggish, sometimes you jump too high and half of the time, when you're trying to jump to a very small platform while trying to avoid falling, there's a 90% chance you're going to fall anyway.
Overall: If you're a collector, it's a good addition to your collection. If you're a hardcore Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles nut, this will disappoint. If you're both, give it a try, but you're better off with TMNT 2 and TMNT 3, as those changed their genre to what the TMNT games really were meant to be, brawlers. The idea of this game was a good one, but executed poorly. It can be found just about anywhere, in pawn shops, thrift stores, online, and just about anywhere else that sells NES games. If you don't own it, it's worth the two bucks, but don't expect a whole lot.